"Well, well, little girl. You brought quite a crowd today!"
Yang Yan stood up with a smile, his hands in his pockets, looking every bit a street thug.
But his strength was nothing to scoff at. He was already level 43, which put him among the second-tier players.
"Cut the crap!"
Qin Yu said coldly, "If you lose today, give the equipment back!"
"Sure."
Yang Yan's smile grew even more brazen.
"But the question is, what happens if you lose, little girl?"
"Y-you, what do you want?!"
"Nothing much. Just come have some fun with us, drink and chat a little. Maybe let us stroke your legs."
"Hahahahaha!"
A wave of raucous laughter rose behind him.
These people were already used to running wild. Now that the game had merged with reality and given them supernatural abilities, they had become even more unrestrained.
Throwing their weight around was an everyday affair. Why would they fear a young girl like Qin Yu?
Faced with such blatant humiliation, Qin Yu clenched her teeth in fury and lost control on the spot.
She raised her hand and summoned her epic-grade equipment, the Flame Bow.
Whoosh!
A flaming arrow shot through the air.
But unexpectedly, Yang Yan reacted just as quickly. He threw a punch, shattering the arrow in midair by brute force!
"How could..."
"Tsk, tsk. That actually hurt!"
Yang Yan looked at the burn on his fist, then at the bow in Qin Yu's hands. A teasing look suddenly entered his eyes.
"With fire damage that strong, don't tell me that weapon of yours is another good piece of equipment?"
"..." Qin Yu instinctively tried to hide her weapon.
This was the Flame Bow Chen Nian had given her, an incredibly precious weapon. She hadn't expected the other man to know his stuff and recognize it at a glance.
"A woman with barely any strength, carrying one fine piece of equipment after another. You're a living bodhisattva, bringing salvation to all!"
"Boys, get fired up!"
"Win this fight and snatch that thing from her. Here's another chance to strike it rich!"
"Hahaha! You've got a sharp eye, Yang!"
"That bow really does look special. It's at least rare-grade equipment. I wasn't feeling too motivated before, but now this is a lot more interesting."
The group rubbed their hands together, their eyes full of eagerness.
Qin Yu, however, was genuinely starting to worry...
If her side lost and she ended up losing everything, wouldn't she lose this weapon too?
"Get them!"
And so, a battle between two sides made up entirely of superhumans began at the docks.
The stakes were high: a piece of epic-grade equipment!
After a chaotic melee, Qin Yu's side did indeed fall behind.
Their opponents were, after all, proper members of a gaming guild. In terms of organization, discipline, and cohesion, they were bound to be far stronger than this disorganized rabble.
"They're too strong, Xiao Yu. We can't beat them..."
Deng Rongrong had grievances he couldn't voice. If they had told Chen Nian about this, why would they need to go to all this trouble?
Why mobilize so many people for something he could easily settle alone?
"We can beat them. We have more people!"
To everyone's shock, Qin Yu called in another group of around a dozen people, all of them superhumans.
Deng Rongrong was stunned too. "Wait, Xiao Yu, where did you find all these people?"
"Money!"
Qin Yu had known they might lose, so she had prepared human wave tactics!
She would overwhelm them with sheer numbers. At worst, she would just spend money!
She had money, so she would spend it without holding back!
Even if Qin Yu had to spend every last bit of her private savings today, she had to get even.
And so, this wave joined the fray, and another fierce battle followed.
They still lost...
The hired fighters were beaten bloody and fell back one after another.
Fortunately, their opponents didn't dare kill them.
If they killed anyone, the Law Enforcement Bureau would intervene, so normal people wouldn't cross that line.
"Fuck, this bitch sure knows how to call in backup!"
"Doesn't matter how many noobs you bring!"
After two successive battles, Yang Yan and his group had all suffered injuries and were already quite exhausted.
Just then, Qin Yu made a phone call.
A third wave came rushing over!
"Is this bitch ever going to stop?"
"How many people did she call over? Fuck..."
Yang Yan's group finally lost their patience. They finally understood just how terrifying a woman could be when she dug her heels in!
Standing a hundred meters up in the air, Chen Nian couldn't help laughing at the sight.
Looks like I won't have to step in. Good. That'll save me from getting caught red-handed by Li Yunwei.
After activating Eagle Eye, he could survey the entire scene. Naturally, he had spotted Li Yunwei hiding in the shadows.
But just then, a man walked slowly toward them from outside the docks.
He took a step.
Lightning pierced the darkness!
The next instant, he was beside the crowd, faint sparks still lingering on his body.
The lightning mage, Chu Long!
The guild master of Critical Point, and currently the highest-level player in Linhai City.
At the sight of his arrival, the group all bowed their heads.
"Boss."
"Boss, you're here!"
Chu Long swept a contemptuous gaze over the people before him.
He raised his right hand high, and a dazzling mass of lightning bloomed in his palm, its leaping arcs like countless slithering snakes.
Suddenly, those lightning snakes shot out!
One scream after another followed.
"Aaaaaah!!!"
Under the onslaught of countless lightning snakes, the entire newly arrived group collapsed, unable to get up, wisps of smoke rising from their bodies.
How could they withstand an attack from a high-level lightning mage?
Every last one of them went down on the spot!
"A bunch of trash with no sense of their own limits."
Chu Long lit a cigarette, no longer sparing this rabble a proper glance.
An overwhelming disparity in sheer strength!
Once he joined the battle, Qin Yu's side no longer had any chance of winning.
"How could this happen..."
"What are you waiting for? Hand it over!" Yang Yan shouted impatiently. "Don't force our boss to get rough."
Qin Yu looked at the people she had paid a fortune to hire, all lying on the ground and crying out incessantly. Her heart turned ice-cold.
I never expected them to have someone this terrifying... Do I really have to hand my Flame Bow over to them?
No... Chen Nian gave this to me!
"Sigh."
Seeing this, Li Yunwei sighed too.
It seemed there would be no surprises tonight. If Chen Nian still hadn't come by now, she had probably been overthinking things.
That made sense. Although he had performed brilliantly in the last instructor test, that had only been an ordinary instructor, not even on par with a first-tier player.
The gap between him and someone like Chu Long was even greater!
She had been getting ahead of herself by placing such high expectations on Chen Nian.
But just then, someone on the ground got up.
He was a skinny, long-haired shut-in who looked as though a gust of wind could knock him over. The way he stood up was extremely strange: his body rose upright without any support!
"W-what's going on?!"
The shut-in's name was Xiao Cheng, and he was just as bewildered.
It felt as though something had forcibly lifted him up by his back. It was utterly bizarre!
Was something invisible behind him forcing his body to move?
"You have a death wish."
Chu Long's gaze turned cold. He raised his hand and fired another bolt of lightning.
Like a sharp sword, the lightning tore savagely through the darkness, growing ever larger in Xiao Cheng's eyes!
He instinctively shielded his face with both hands and screamed.
"Aah!!!!"
But what happened next made everyone present gasp.
That bolt of lightning had actually been smashed apart by this shut-in...